Cutting down your summit presentation to a 'mere' 20 minutes can feel daunting! Jessica Rasdall breaks it down so that it feels (and is) reasonable and doable - AND doesn't dilute your message. This is an episode you don't want to miss!

Take the quiz at http://howtostartspeaking.com/

Want to learn more about booking more summit speaking engagements and making more money from them? Get access to Jessica's full presentation - and more! - with all the steps to a powerful presentation at https://sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition/

Learn more about Jess at https://thepublicspeakingstrategist.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Summit Speaker Strategy Audio Training

If you want to learn more about summit speaking strategies and how you can use it to grow your business, jump over to virtualsummitspeaking.com. I put together a free audio training that you can take on the go in your regular podcast player!

Speaker Audio Training

Welcome to Virtual Summit Success.

I'm Jenn, founder of Virtual Summit Search, and you're in the right place

if you want to make the most of your virtual summit experience, whether

you're a host or virtual summit speaker.

Let's get going with your next step to virtual summit success.

You're listening to a snippet of a presentation from Sell

Speaker Edition.

The fantastic Jessica Rasdall is giving you the scoop on how to create a short

but powerful summit presentation - even if you're used to giving 60-minute sessions.

This is a topic I get asked about all the time at Virtual Summit

Search, so I knew I had to bring in a pro of this and Jess delivers.

I'll let her take it from here!

Hi, friends, and welcome to today's presentation.

I am so excited that you are here because if you are in this session, I

know that you value quality content, and you want to uplevel the presentations

that you are delivering on summits.

And don't worry, you are in the right place.

Today I'm going to show you exactly what needs to be going into your

presentations in order to make them impactful without making them lengthy.

So whether you are developing your presentation for the first

time, or you're taking an existing presentation and cutting it down,

today's presentation is for you.

Before we get into all of that.

I have to tell you about my newest obsession and it might sound a little

silly, but with all the streaming services out there, I recently - like,

within two nights ago - just added Discovery+ to my suite of shows.

And this isn't...

I'm not sponsored by them, but Discovery+, if you're watching,

I'm open to all opportunities.

But I just need to tell you about this experience, because I

think there's a lesson here for us to learn as business owners.

So I got Discovery+ because I'm a nerd and I watch Naked and Afraid and Building

Off the Grid and all those survival shows from my couch in my air conditioning,

judging people out in the wilderness like I could do it better than them.

It's absolutely ridiculous, but I'm obsessed and I want to watch these shows.

And when I was going to purchase my subscription to this service, there

was an option to get rid of all the commercials and it was like a dollar more.

No brainer.

I don't like commercials; count me in, right?

And I'm willing to bet you would have done the same thing.

But what I found is that watching these TV shows that I know and love

that were designed and formatted to have commercial breaks seem a little

weird when they remove the commercials.

I'm going to show you again.

Don't judge my TV preferences here, friends.

do you think that this clip feels weird or repetitive or

anything like this when we take a great show and we pull the commercials out?

That felt like we're watching the same thing again, right?

We're watching this diveball, like, okay, spoiler alert: he was crossing the

river and they just edited these crocs, so that was not actually happening.

But didn't it feel weird when they took this episode that

was designed for one format and they pulled out the commercials?

Like, that commercial break felt weird now.

And that's what happens to our presentations when we slice and dice our

we run the risk of ruining the flow that was designed for that talk.

So you and I might not be out on Naked and Afraid or putting together these

big TV shows that we have to worry about being cut when somebody opts to have

the commercials removed, but when we are designing a presentation to fit a

60 minute slot, and we now have to cut it down to 15 or 20, how can we do that

effectively without ruining the flow?

Well, if we haven't met yet friends, I'm not just a big fan of Naked and

Afraid, but my name is Jessica Rasdall and I'm the Public Speaking Strategist.

I've spent the last 15 years traveling the country, sharing my story and have the

absolute honor of spending my days today helping small business owners do the same.

I'm obsessed with helping entrepreneurs scale their impact, their income, their

message, and their company by speaking on podcasts, stages, webinars, and more

through hosting my own events, speaking at other people events, and truly

working with some of the most incredible business owners I have ever met.

I have learned the ins and outs of what makes a presentation convert and not,

and truly, less is more when it comes to our presentations, especially after

the last year and a half we've all had, we don't need more information.

You do not need to shove another teaching point into your talk.

Our audience is craving connection and intimacy and action.

A big part of our presentation is a performance and the flow that

we're taking our customer through.

See, a presentation is a journey and the way that I've designed the talks

that I write for my clients, or I teach them to write inside of the

Speaking Strategy Academy, we want to take our audience through this flow.

We want those bursts of excitement, we want them on the edge of their

seat, we want them wondering where in the world are they going with this?

And at the end, have a clear path of what they're going to do next.

But that's what happens when we start to take our presentation and we just cut

out pieces to make it fit a new timeline.

We risk disrupting that entire flow.

And if we're going to make a presentation that takes our audience on a journey

- especially in a short timeframe - I want you to leave here today and fully

understanding what's going to go into your talk and what's not going to go into it.

I want you to leave here today and know exactly how to deliver value at your next

talk - and every talk - because when we can be better presenters, we're elevating

education as a whole in our industries, we're leaving people better than we

found them and creating a ripple effect that we didn't even know as possible.

So what's the first step?

If you truly want to create an impactful presentation, I need you

to define what that journey is.

Not what information am I going to shove into my talk, but

where am I taking my audience?

The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself: when they walk into the room

or they log into the presentation, what is their current state?

What are they struggling with?

What are they working towards?

What are their hopes, their dreams or aspirations, the things

that keep them up at night?

What is their current reality?

And when you leave the room, when you log off, when the presentation

is done, how will you have left them better than when you found them?

What is the transformation that you're providing?

We're not taking them from A to Z.

Maybe we're taking them from A to C, and how are we going to get them there?

We have to define where it is we're going to go so we know how to take them there.

When it comes to developing high-value, high-converting presentations, there

are only four things that you truly need to include in your presentation.

Now, granted, our templates inside of the Speaking Strategy Academy break this

down to a lot more of a nitty-gritty cycle, but it's four key phases that you

really need to focus on, and if you can hit on these, you're going to be a-okay.

Grab your pen, let's go.

The first phase that we need to get our audience to is to even get them to watch.

We're going to take them through this journey of hooking them in so they

want to listen, build the case so they see a reason to take action, serve

from the stage - deliver tangible value that they can use - and leave

them with a lasting impact they can go out into the world and implement.

Let's break this down a little bit more nitty-gritty so you can see how it

applies to you and your audience, but that, my friend, is the flow - that's it.

We don't have to overcomplicate that.

So in order to hook our audience and what I mean by that is starting your

presentation from a place that gets them to the edge of their seat, not starting

your presentation with an introduction, because most hosts are going to be

so incredible and they're going to take the time to introduce you first.

So it, it sounds a little repetitive - like that guy falling in the water - if

we introduce ourselves after the host introduced ourself, but also

we haven't established any kind of relationship with our audience yet.

So when we started talking about our achievements and our

accolades and our experience, it can almost come off as boastful.

So we want to start our presentation, not focused on ourselves,

but focused on our audience.

What do they need to hear from us to want to keep listening?

How can we create a common ground and establish a connection that's going to

move them to the next step in the journey?

Once you have your flow in place, then - and only then - can

you go open up your old talk.

Here's when you want to open up your presentation, that great one, the longer

one, and we're going to pull from it.

We're going to pull from the old talk and import it into your new talk.

Just a simple little copy-and-paste.

But what I have found is that when we go back to our larger presentation and

we start cutting it out, it becomes disjointed like that Naked and Afraid

episode without the commercials.

Instead, when we can pull from the old and create the new, we're able to design

a flow that takes our audience on a journey, not leaves them wondering why

they're watching that same clip again.

Most people will stop here and I don't want you to be like most people.

So you're going to take this to step five and give your new

presentation a full walkthrough.

Put yourself in your audience's shoes and ask, "am I really

taking my audience on a journey?

If I walked into the room where they are right now and I go through this flow, am I

equipped with the tools and the resources and the inspiration to take my next step?"

If so, you've done a great job and I'm so proud of you because delivering a

high-value presentation isn't everyone's priority and I'm sure you've experienced

that, but I know that we are in the business of doing better than we've

done before, than others before us have.

And if we want to deliver these presentations that truly can change lives

and change businesses and create a ripple effect in our industry and in our world,

we've got to be committed to delivering true value from the stage and not just

shoving information at our audience.

I'm not sure what brought you to today's session, but I'm so grateful that you

are here, and I hope that these four little phases are going to help you

create your next presentation without overwhelm for yourself and definitely

not overwhelm for your audience.

If you're thinking that speaking is something you want to spend more time

learning about or more time investing in your business, I want to help you.

This is something that I'm completely obsessed with, and if you enjoyed

today's lesson, then you will love my teaching style because

my frameworks have a framework.

We will just get along fine.

What I would love for you to do is take a quick 10-question quiz to help

you figure out what your first steps need to be with speaking, because

speaking is not created equal and all of us are gonna have a different path.

So if you head over to howtostartspeaking.com, just answer

the 10 questions, and I'm going to tell you what your next step for

speaking should be and give you your own little roadmap to get started.

I can't say thank you enough again for joining me today.

It has been such a pleasure to really lead this conversation with you, and I cannot

wait to see your next presentation and how impactful it will be for your audience.

Okay, don't you just love Jess?

We didn't have time to get into all of her steps for creating a powerful

20-minute presentation, so make sure to get access to her full session at

sellwithasummit.com/speakeredition.

And how are you going to hook in your summit audience for your

next short and sweet presentation?

Leave a review and let me and Jess know!

Thanks for listening to Virtual Summit Success.

Don't forget to leave a review and let others know your biggest

takeaways from this episode.

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summits there are, the more tips we'll have to share with you.

For show notes, links, and other resources, go to virtualsummitsuccess.live